“I can resist everything but temptation.”
-Oscar Wilde

Recent “scientific” surveys reveal that 45% of us in the U.S. make New Year’s resolution but only 8% succeed in fulfilling them. Those under 30 years of age apparently do much better; 16% of them succeed. (1) Here is another statistic that is hard to believe: “38% of 2600 respondents polled by their fitness program failed to accomplish their fitness goals in the past year”. (2) Boy, talk about underreporting!

It makes me wonder, “why bother?”. But, the social pressure of age-old traditions is unremitting, so here are my 2015 resolutions. (Maybe my first one should “be stronger against social pressure of age-old traditions”. )

In 2015:

1. I will continue to resist committing myself fully to the social media fray while I patiently wait for the ultimate app, “TwitterFace”, “FaceTube”, “InstantaYou”.

2. I will no longer make wise cracks about brussel sprouts, broccoli, and eggplant dishes now that my grand children like them, but I still don’t eat them.

3. I will start the Paleo diet (no grain, no processed foods, no sugar, no milk – basically “what a caveman would eat”) as soon as Market Basket or Stop and Shop puts saber-tooth tiger steaks on sale.

4. I will try to treat anti-gun control and anti-vaccine advocates with respect since they are probably rational people, even through their arguments are irrational.

5. I will read the computer screen from left to right, line by line, and word-for-word before I call my son when I lose my way, since that is the first instruction he will give me. (It unravels my confusion about 95% of the time.)

6. I will not spend hours this year comparing bills while trying to decide whether Verizon or Comcast has the best “bundle”. (It always seems fruitless no matter how or when I do it.)

7. I will continue to collect articles and study results that promote the health benefits of an afternoon nap, but I will also stop my occasional designation of a nap as my ”accomplishment for that day”.

8. I will wear my new, gifted fit-bit bracelet (Jawbone-UP/24 which apparently measures all my activity and my non-activity) for at least a month, even though I probably won’t understand all of its features by that time. (If all else fails, I will download the manual, if I can find it on their website.)

9. If I find myself using my son-in-law’s or daughter’s Netflix password on my home TV more than once a week, I will get my own subscription.

10. I will complete and publish my compilation of “You may be a Geezer if…” aphorisms.

That’s it.
Nothing magic about the number ten except that it avoids any connotations of the number 12, either disciples or members of a jury.

Feel free to add any of your own resolutions here. Maybe announcing them will generate some needed social pressure on you to succeed.

THE LAST OF MY “FOOD BLOGS” FOR A WHILE.

After blogs about the evils of excess added sugar, added trans fats, the obfuscation of ingredient lists, and manipulative marketing by food manufacturers I find it easy and appropriate to finish up this series with pictures that capture more than I can write.

Some churches have come up with the ultimate answer to WWJD? Gluten-free communion wafers!!

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Wouldn’t it be great if parents were as paranoid about gun deaths – 500 children per year – as we are about peanut allergy deaths – 150 children and adults per year.

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As a pediatrician with 45 years of experience and a grandfather, I think that the moment depicted here is much more important in the long run for the child than reading the % of trans fat or sugar content in the ingredients list.

“Happiness is Not a Warm Gun” – Jan 1, 2013In half of my lifetime our culture has moved from arguing that sometimes it was “better to not wear a seat belt in case there was a car fire” to having my grandchildren remind me that I shouldn’t start the car until MY seat belt is buckled. No ONE law accomplished that, and it happened despite critics and opposition from big time lobbyists. Why can’t we do the same for gun control?

Ten Ways To Improve Your Health – Jan 15, 2013 This list, “backed by scientific research”, was complied by AARP.1. Throw a Party – Social connections help you live longer.
2. Adopt a Pet – Exercise it (and you) and count it as another social connection.
3. Choose Dark Chocolate – An ounce a day keeps the doctor away.
4. Savor Your Coffee – Three cups a day keeps Alzheimer’s away.
5. Have a glass of wine or beer – “Guinness is Good For You” One glass a day for women, two for men!
6. Have Sex – There is nothing bad about releasing endorphins. It also counts as aerobic exercise.
7. Listen to Your Favorite Music – A song a day keeps the heart pumping away.
8. Take a Nap – A nap a day keeps the brain hoarder at bay.
9. Go Outdoors – Go look at the greens, don’t just eat them.
10. Use Soap. regular soap – Antibacterial soaps with triclosan aren’t worth the cost and may not be safe.

The MYTH of Antioxidants – Feb. 1, 2013A 2007 systematic review of 68 clinical trials concluded that antioxidants do not reduce the risk of death. Certain antioxidants were linked to a 5% INCREASED risk of death. The American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association now advise “that people should not take antioxidant supplements except to treat a diagnosed vitamin deficiency”. “The literature is providing growing evidence that these supplements – in particular at high doses – do not necessarily have the beneficial effects that they have been thought to…We’ve become acutely aware of potential downsides.”

The ATF has no ammunition – Feb. 15, 2013The Tiahrt Amendment, passed by Congress in 2006, permits gun dealers to destroy gun registration applications within 24 hours of completion so as “to avoid any inadvertent errors from being promulgated” . It placed these prohibitions on the ATF; the federal agency overseeing firearms

prohibited from establishing a registry of gun owners (imagine no one keeping a registry of car owners)
prohibited from requiring gun dealers to maintain inventories of their wares
prohibited from inspecting any gun dealer’s records more than once a year
prohibited from revealing firearms trace data to anyone other than law enforcement personnel (firearm tracing is done for firearms used in crimes. One study showed that 57% of guns used in crimes in one state were traced to only 1% of gun dealers.)
prohibited from requiring gun dealers to respond to police inquiries.

So we may not need any more laws or regulations for gun safety. We could just repeal the one “Tiahrt Amendment”, and let the ATF begin to do its job.

Take a Pill – March 1, 2013“Something like a third of consumers who’ve seen a drug ad have talked to their doctor about it,” says Julie Donohue, a professor of public health at the University of Pittsburgh who is considered a leading expert on this subject.”About two-thirds of those have asked for a prescription. And the majority of people who ask for a prescription have that request honored.” Our mantra continues:
“Hey, Doc,
Forget the Mediterranean Diet.
I’m an American.
Give me a pill.”

The New Pope – March 15, 2013The medical question I have not been able to answer despite my extensive, exhaustive research (at least an hour on Google) is: Which Pope had the ulnar nerve palsy? The classic hand gesture of the “Papal Blessing” or “Papal Benediction”, despite erudite analysis by reverent writers on the religious symbolism of his hand and fingers, is, in fact, the result of a nerve palsy of the hand. Even the Vatican tourist guides know this.The Italian bishops were surprised that the Bishop of Milan, Angelo Scola, was not elected, and much to their embarrassment they prematurely released a report that he had been. I, too, was disappointed that Angelo Scola did not get elected. We all could have called him Pope Scola.

Pope Francis Bails Out Obamacare – April 1, 2013In a solemn Easter Mass Pope Francis dramatically offered the help of the Roman Catholic Church in funding universal health care in the U.S. He noted that because the U.S. is the only civilized Western country without universal health care and is currently having financial problems, it is the Christian thing to do. “Since neither disease nor money is restricted by national boundaries, it makes good sense to protect the rest of the world from the health problems of the beleaguered U.S. ” The Pope’s plan was immediately dubbed, “Francincare” (pronounced as “Frankincare” with the Italian hard “c”). At the end of the press conference Pope Francis returned briefly, showed the persistent Papal nerve palsy to the gathering, and closed with a benediction in Italian: “Felice Aprile Ingannare Giorno”, in Spanish: “Felize Abril Enganar Dia”, and finally in English: “Happy April Fools Day”.

Patient Centered Medicine – April 15, 2013PARENT: So, I should breast feed Leonard for a whole year, but could have started solid foods two months ago? Most of my friends swear that giving food makes their babies sleep longer at night.
PHYSICIAN: Exclusive breast feeding for 6 months has lots of advantages for the infant. There is no evidence that giving solid foods makes the infant sleep longer at night, but there is probably no harm in starting him on cereal now.
PARENT: Any particular kind of cereal?
PHYSICIAN: A 1994 Swedish study showed that introducing wheat before 6 months of age caused a big spike in gluten allergies and celiac disease, but a more recent one there showed that giving wheat to breast-fed babies at 4 months actually decreased the later occurrence of celiac disease and gluten allergy.
PARENT: So, wheat cereal could be either good or bad at his age? This is very confusing.
PHYSICIAN: Science can be confusing. It often changes its mind as new data is gathered.

Lessons Learned from the Development of Polio Vaccines – May 1, 2013
1. Even in science, what you know is important, but WHO you know can be also.
2. Yesterdays “field trial” is today’s mass immunization campaign, and NOBODY tests drugs or vaccines, whether from mice brains or monkey kidneys, on themselves and their family members anymore!
3. The history of testing vaccines and drugs on impaired or incarcerated populations reminds us again of the necessity for “informed consent”.
4. As more academic institutions seek joint contracts with big pharma to replace reduced NIH support of research (MGH and Sanofi, AztraZenenca, etc.) accusations of being a “commercial scientist” seem moot.
5. Some immigrants can be very smart, focussed, and hard-working, and they can contribute immensely to our country’s health and wealth.
6. Science keeps gathering data and testing hypotheses, so we should not be surprised when its recommendations change.

Medical Marijuana – May 15, 20131. Marijuana use before the age of 20 does have structural and functional effects on brain development, primarily but not limited to the frontal lobe. (“The frontal lobe, responsible for impulse control, is the last to develop and the first to go.”)
2. After the age of 20 there is little current evidence that MJ causes any permanent effect on brain function or structure.
3. There are currently no predictors that will identify an occasional user of MJ as one who will become dependent or addicted to MJ (daily use), but the earlier one starts using marijuana (13 yo.) the more likely brain function will be effected.
4. Despite the “trustworthy karma” of medical marijuana, marijuana prescriptions will result in the dispensing of varied, complex, and inconsistent products.
5.Access to marijuana by middle and high school students in 2013 is now so easy according to both students and researchers that medical marijuana dispensaries will provide little increased access to adolescents.

The three drugs of adolescent choice today, tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana, do share a common denominator in that those who use one of the three drugs by age 13, will use one or more of the others before 18 yr. There is NO evidence that one is the “gateway” to another. In fact, one researcher remarked that the concept of a gateway is more of a myth than a reality. He called development of addiction to one or the other substance as a “shared vulnerability”.

Sunscreen SPF Ratings Escalation – June 1, 2013This year Consumer Reports states that the according to their tests the maximum effective SPF is now 40. Paying for anything above that is wasted money. Two years ago Consumer Reports tests showed that any sunscreen with a SPF (Sun Protection Factor) over 30 gave no more protection than a 30. They also recommended that year-old sunscreen might have lost some of its effectiveness, so new sunscreen should be bought each year. New FDA regulations require the sunscreen to be labeled with a three-year expiration date.

What Massachusetts Docs Think About Medical Marijuana – June 15, 2013 Common threads in the 118 comments posted were:
1. Does marijuana even belong in the purview of physicians? “Just legalize it and let patients decide whether to use it or not”
2. Most physicians who supported its medical use would do so “in certain circumstances”; implying strongly that physician control over use was assumed by supporters.
3. All camps called for more research to move toward a stronger basis of evidence.

Do You Have Obesity or Are You Just Fat?- July 1, 2013The House of Delegates of the AMA just voted to designate obesity as a disease. This means that you will no longer “be fat”. You will “have obesity” like you “have diabetes”. The AMA Scientific Council recommended to retain obesity as “a condition”. A spirited debate about the consequences has begun. I suspect that much of the controversy is about money. Medicalizing a societal condition will cause more money to be spent on surgery and drugs. “Insurers will pay more.” The upside of that could be more provider reimbursement for prevention and life style counseling by primary care providers, but surgery and big pharma are usually first in line. Two new anti-obesity drugs (Belvig and Qsymia) came on the market this past year. More than one-third of Americans will instantly be labeled as “ill” and therefore eligible for more medical services.

Sunscreens Are Poisonous? – July 15, 2013
The culprit is oxybenzone and other similar chemicals in chemical sunscreens first described as “endocrine disruptors”, a code word for “estrogen effect” which directly connects it emotionally to breast cancer, particularly by Dr. Oz. Oxybenzone is such a common ingredient in skin products that a CDC survey of Americans in 2003 detected it in 97% of urine samples. The link to breast cancer in humans has not been proven. One reassuring fact is that hormones, like all chemicals and unlike radiation, have to reach a certain blood or tissue level to have any significant effect. An average woman would have to apply 1 and 1/2 quarts of sunscreen to 25% of her body (arms, legs, and face) each year for 277 years to attain the levels of oxybenzone that had uterine effects in lab rats!

Too Much Sun in Vermont?! – August 1, 2013I am in a hammock in Vermont reading, much to my surprise, that Vermont, the land of a severely short summer, has one of the highest melanoma rates in the country. About 29 people per 100,000 in Vermont get diagnosed with melanoma as compared to the national average of 19 per 100,000. Bennington County has the HIGHEST rate of melanoma of any county in the nation, 179% above the national average!

Somezhiemer’s – Sept. 1, 2013News releases and internet blogs this week are full of buzz about a protein that apparently is related to the memory loss of aging; something I call Somezhiemer’s as opposed to Allzhiemer’s (sic). In this Columbia University School of Medicine study a deficiency of the protein RbAp48 in a specific part of the brain in both older mice and 8 older humans (both postmortem) was correlated with memory loss ; at least the ability of the mice to remember a water maze pathway.
The good news is that one specific biological cause of memory loss has been discovered, as contrasted with speculation about aluminum, cooper, mercury, zinc, and other environmental agents.The bad news is that us older people will probably not, in our lifetime, be able to take a “RbAp48 pill” each morning, so we don’t misplace our car keys, glasses or …. forget to write an August 15 blog.

Fear of Fever – Sept. 15, 2013
Many parents think that a temperature over 98.6 F is a fever. Most pediatricians consider a temperature of 101 F or higher as a fever, except in infants under 3 months where we pay attention to temperatures over 100 F. Any pediatric practice worth its salt has a handout or a website page describing fever as one of nature’s way to fight infection. Fevers are usually caused by common viruses for which antibiotics are no help, and discomfort from them is relieved easily by simple medicines.
We desire zero risk level in our lives, and a fever, no matter how small or how short in duration, indicates that something may be wrong. Speaking of risks, how can we accept that everyone must remove their shoes at the airport because one person had a bomb in a shoe, but we don’t register gun owners and accept the much greater risks of our kids being shot?

Obamacare Begins – October 1, 2013Like the Bible, Obamacare is open to interpretation. Your view of it may depend on your political party rather than your religion. Both are vulnerable to quoting out of context in support of opposing viewpoints. Both have overall, encompassing goals which can often be lost, or at least obscured, by minute details of excess verbiage. Both have, and will continue to have, “unintended consequences” (like the Inquisition and the Crusades) that we mere mortals have to deal with.
Everyone certainly agrees that Obamacare is NOT divinely inspired. Congress has clearly rejected the idea of a central authority (like the Pope, or Donald Berwick, MD as “Czar” of CMS). The Bible is no longer chained in the dark in the back of the church. Obamacare is now out in public, out in the market place. We shall eventually see how well it meets the needs of our citizens for affordable health care.
By the time the Republicans win the presidency Obamacare will have so many beneficiaries (voters) that they won’t dare to kill it, and they’ll have to rename it. I wonder WWJD?

Flu Vaccination – October 16, 2013
The trivalent vaccine is the most readily available (at both your physician’s office or a retail store) and there is no compelling reason to seek out the quadrivalent vaccine. The vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing the flu depends on which flu strain is circulating in your area. Effectiveness may be as high as 80% in young adults, but is almost always lower in the elderly. A high dose vaccine that allegedly delivers four times the usual prod to your immune system is being marketed for the over 65ers , but it is not recommended since there is no independent study of its success.
In Massachusetts last year there were 5 flu deaths in children under 17 yo. None of the five had been adequately vaccinated. Two of the five had no pre-existing health problems. Nationally there were 146 pediatric deaths from the flu last year compared to 34 the previous year. 40% of those deaths were in children who were otherwise very healthy. 90% of them were unvaccinated.

Paranoia – Nov. 1, 2013
Former Vice President Dick Cheney recently said during a “60 Minute” interview that he had his cardiologist turn off the wireless function in his implanted pacemaker “in case a terrorist tried to send his heart a fatal shock.” Years later, he saw that scenario played out in an “Homeland” episode. We knew that his DC residency was pixellated in the Google satellite view, and we wondered if he was on the NASA phone surveillance list. But then, we remembered that he had ordered it.
Polls taken in Boston after the Marathon bombings indicate that more people think that “such attacks are likelier, but fewer live in dread of them.”.”In the United States since 9/11 Islamic terrorism has resulted in the deaths of 37 people. During that same period, ten thousand times that many have been killed by guns wielded by their countrymen or themselves.”

Is It a Strep Throat or Just a Virus Cold? – Nov. 15, 2013
A team of Boston research physicians have recently come up with a potential APP for that! These physicians combined two clinical findings that the patient could recognize with real-time data about the occurrence of positive strep tests in the community in the past 14 days to generate a “Home Score” to tell you if you really need a strep throat test.
There may soon be a home kit for that! Other physician researchers in Boston are ready to test a home-based, patient-administered Rapid Strep Test. A positive home-based RST would be enough to initiate treatment and prevent complications.

The Myth of Multi-Tasking – Dec. 1, 2013“Multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking…When we talk to multitaskers they seem to think that they’re great at it and seem totally unfazed and totally able to do more and more and more.” Actually, those who did it the least, did it the best. “We are worried that multitasking may be creating people who are unable to think well or clearly.”
Recent work involved study of the erosion of social and emotional development by the increasing use of social media. “We have to get back to that saying, ‘Look at me when I talk to you’”.

Aspergers or Autism – Dec. 15, 2013Confusion about these syndromes increased in the 2000’s as screening tools improved and awareness of the syndromes grew. The authors of the 2013 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) , the bible of insurance company reimbursement, has attempted to simplify and clarify the situation by lumping all the diagnostic names into one billing code, “Autism Spectrum Disorder” (ASD).
The attempt has not succeeded according to its critics and many practicing physicians.
Parents of Asperger children could lose insurance benefits now tied to that diagnosis. Grant-supported educational and enrichment programs for Asperger’s may dry up. Asperger’s has always been a less terrifying diagnosis than autism. People with Asperger’s, and probably more important, their parents, don’t want to be labeled with the stigmata of “autistic”. Dan Akroyd and Daryl Hannah self-proclaimed their Asperger’s in 2013.

The discussion about gun control is not a rational one. “How does one argue with someone convinced that the routine massacre of our children is the price we must pay for our freedom to have guns, or rather to have guns that make us feel free? You can only shake your head and maybe cry a little.” Adam Gopnik July 7, 2012

As both sides relentlessly quote statistics, some good old satire and ridicule is needed to help us cut through all that smoke. Like something Stephen Colbert would do.
That’s it!
We need Stephen Colbert caressing his warm gun on TV while spouting NRA truisms to show us how ridiculous we are as a nation in controlling everything BUT guns.

“The United States is responsible for over 80% of all the gun deaths in the 23 richest countries combined. Considering that the people of those countries, as human beings, are no better or worse than any of us, well, then, why us?” (Michael Moore)

In the U.S. there are 98 guns per 100 people. In the U.K. there are 6 guns per 100. “If America’s real concern, as expressed by its Second Amendment, is that the British are coming, I think they got that one covered.” (Tabatha Southey, Vancouver B.C. Globe and Mail, 12/29/2012)

3000 people died in the September 11th attack. In response we started two long wars and built a vast Homeland Security Apparatus that cost us trillions of dollars. Since that time 275,000 Americans were killed by gunfire at home and our response has been weakened gun laws. (Doonesbury, Feb 13, 2011)

Better still. Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC money, if there is any left, could be aimed at the NRA.There is no BIG gun control lobby. Just several well-meaning small ones.Without a well-financed lobby the outlook for any gun control legislation is bleak in our current democracy.
How about a new NRA (“Now Reduce Arms”) or “NRA 2, the sequel” Super PAC for Colbert Nation?
Stephen could pull it off.

A few “fun facts” to throw out to your social network (includes old-fashioned cocktail parties):

The number of children and teenagers killed by guns in Massachusetts was double that killed in motor vehicle accidents during 2003 -2007 (CDC)

Many guns used in school shootings come from the shooters’ homes. (CDC)

Children in the United States are 11 times more likely to be killed accidentally with a gun than children in other developed countries. On average, 38 children and teens are shot and 8 of them are killed every day in the United States from gun violence.

Guns in a home increase the risk of suicide. NO data supports successful defensive use of guns against homicide. “It appears that gun ownership is associated with a net increase in the risk of death for a typical household.”

Why not tax guns?
“Cigarettes should be $25 a pack to pay for the damage they cost”. The CDC has estimated that the cost of smoking (estimated cost of smoking-related medical expenses and loss of productivity) exceeds $167 billion annually. The smoker paid approximately $5 a pack up front, but the additional cost of medical expenses and lost productivity is born by all of us taxpayers and anyone who buys health insurance. Raising the taxes on a pack of cigarettes so that they would cost $25 a pack could cover that.
Could they do those calculations for the medical costs, lost productivity, AND costs of criminal prosecution/civil litigation for gun-related deaths?

“Things NOT to do”:Put armed guards in schools – “3 COPS SHOT IN POLICE STATION BY ARRESTEE” – a New Jersey headline December 29, 2012
Increase mental health screening – “The government has no business knowing that you have a dozen AR-158s” says the NRA in defense of the right to privacy. “Why then would the NRA suggest that the government needs to know if your Aunt Jean is arachnophobic?”, says Tabath Southey, Vancouver Globe

In half of my lifetime our culture has moved from arguing that sometimes it was “better to not wear a seat belt in case there was a car fire” to having my grandchildren remind me that I shouldn’t start the car until MY seat belt is buckled.

No ONE law accomplished that, and it happened despite critics and opposition from big time lobbyists. Why can’t we do the same for gun control?